Fun with Cousins at the Lake!

On Friday May 29th, CK flew over to Marietta, GA to pick up his sister Cynthia and her kids to visit us for two weeks! CK, Cynthia and the kids arrived the next afternoon and the girls, dogs, food and everything we needed for our visit was loaded into the car and headed down to the lake to meet them after they drove in from Arlington Airport. We planned a fun week at the lake with the whole crew and then returned to our house for a few days before returning to the lake. Cynthia and her oldest son were able to stay for a short week before they returned to Georgia for work for her and baseball practice for him. Jillian, who is a year older than Olivia and Jackson, who recently turned seven stayed with us for just over a week. Jillian and Olivia have always gotten along well and had fun playing together while Jackson loves following around Sofia and being with her. This visit, it seemed like Olivia and Jillian actually got along even better than in past years while Jackson seemed happier to play with all the girls and didn't follow Sofia around as much as previous visits together. They all had a great time together and we really had a fun time together at the lake. As usual, the kids LOVED being pulled all over the lake on the tube. Chandler and Jackson were absolutely fearless and also incredible at holding on no matter how crazy CK drove the boat! It was very impressive. Meanwhile, the girls had a great time going together except for one particular ride when I was driving with Olivia and Jillian on the tube and I accidentally pressed on the gas in a turn and they both went flying. They actually both came up crying and mad at me, so that was the end of the ride for both of them. I felt terrible!

When we weren't on the boat watching the kids be tugged around on the tube, CK went surfing and actually was able to surf with Olivia and then with Jillian. I don't know how he does it! It was really cool and the girls loved it and had a lot of fun surfing. The jet skis were also a huge draw and Sofia went out a few times with Chandler. She's very good and responsible on the jet ski and the cousins had a great time together. After boating, the kids would smim in our cove and have fun together. They loved trying to pile onto the paddle board and Jackson loved to try and tip them all over, which generally is what happened. It became a fun game and it was really cute to watch them climb on, try to stay on, fall over and then try to get back onto the paddle board. While we were enjoying the lake we had cheeseburgers, spaghetti, made sandwiches for lunch and had a lot of fun together. On their down time, they watched movies at night and played Roblox together on their devices. They enjoyed a very fun time together at the lake!

CK and me taking the kid crew out on their very first boat ride on the lake!

Chandler and Sofia cutting it up.

Jillian and Olivia. Jillian wanted to go a lot faster and have much crazier turns than Olivia was comfortable doing the first few days.

One of the lake sunsets.

Buddy surveying the lake and keeping watch.

The view, which I will never get tired of enjoying!

Chandler on the paddle board and Sofia swimming behind him.

Sofia going down our "slide" which is the tube tied to the back of the boat. It's a pretty decent drop into the water, but the girls loved it.

Jillian going down the slide.

CK and Skipper hanging out on the boat.

Chandler, Jillian and Olivia on the paddle board.

Over they go!

Chandler, Jillian, Olivia, and Jackson on the paddle board with Sofia on the jet ski behind them.

One of many times they all fell off.

Cute cousins!

And our cute dog!

CK surfing with Olivia

And surfing with Jillian

Cousins on the tube during a swim break.

All the cousins on the tube! CK had to go pretty slow since they would all fall off otherwise. It made for cute pictures!

Love with picture!

Skipper playing with his buddy Buppy (his name is actually Buddy, but since we have a Buddy, we call him Buppy which the girls came up with as a combination of "Buddy" and "Puppy." We think it is super clever, so we call him Buppy when he comes over.

Sofia and Chandler on the jet ski.

Love this picture too, although Chandler and Sofia aren't in it.

Jackson and Olivia on the tube. Jackson was very uncertain the first time he went on it, but he soon became a crazy daredevil.

Buddy and me hanging out on the boat.

The cousins and the sunset!

Love this picture too of Jackson and Olivia having fun!

The best sunset of our week! It was incredible!

Skipper on his very first outing on the boat. When he wasn't wondering what was going on on the tube, he was totally fine to sleep and relax.

Jackson and Skipper having a stare off!

Cousins and Skipper.

Sofia and Jackson having fun on the tube.

Chandler and Jackson on the craziest ride of the week!

Skipper, our little boating dog.

Jackson, Jillian and Olivia having fun.

Cousins after a very fun day on the lake!

Such cuties and sweet cousins.